Northern Command Roles and Missions, and More from CRS
Noteworthy new reports from the Congressional Research Service include the following (all pdf).
“Homeland Security: Roles and Missions for United States Northern Command,” January 28.
“Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons: Proliferation and Security Issues,” updated January 14, 2008.
“Pakistan’s Political Crises,” updated January 3, 2008.
“Navy Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Program: Oversight Issues and Options for Congress,” updated January 4, 2008.
“East Asian Regional Architecture: New Economic and Security Arrangements and U.S. Policy,” updated January 4, 2008.
“The United Nations Human Rights Council: Issues for Congress,” updated January 8, 2008.
January saw us watching whether the government would fund science. February has been about how that funding will be distributed, regulated, and contested.
This rule gives agencies significantly more authority over certain career policy roles. Whether that authority improves accountability or creates new risks depends almost entirely on how agencies interrupt and apply it.
Our environmental system was built for 1970s-era pollution control, but today it needs stable, integrated, multi-level governance that can make tradeoffs, share and use evidence, and deliver infrastructure while demonstrating that improved trust and participation are essential to future progress.
Durable and legitimate climate action requires a government capable of clearly weighting, explaining, and managing cost tradeoffs to the widest away of audiences, which in turn requires strong technocratic competency.